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The big difference imo with Adidas is that they are big in football (and sports in general), and football is the most popular sport in the world. Everyone knows Adidas, unlike Wilson, etc. People will buy it because it is Adidas and feel part of the rest of the world of sports (the apparel at least, if the design hasn't been messed up, rackets will indeed remain to be seen)

but i have totally no idea on how are they going to put 3 strips on their racket?

I don't think Wilson (and other tennis companies) had/have a FULL resource commitment to badminton and that is where they failed. To them badminton is sort of the other child while they spoil their favourite (tennis). Sort of like squash and racquetball.

These tennis companies do not have the apparel and footwear experience and resources that adidas does. Adidas stands to gain more from this than just selling badminton racquets.

I'm sure they once did, but like many others, Wilson were shoved away by Yonex and Carlton. Yonex then battered Carlton into submission and left everyone else for dead. If companies like Carlton that are dedicated to badminton cannot put up a fight, I cannot see a newcomer being able to do much better.

Victor has quite a long history, I remember using a Victor racquet almost 25yrs ago when it was quite popular in the clubs I played. They've been quiet for quite a few years but with some decent technology and sponsorship, they've managed to reinstate their foothold in this lucrative business in recent years.

LN on the other hand is probably the closest model to what Adidas should aspire to in that I believe LN started in sports clothing too. But for LN, it all happened after some speculative hush hush chat with the national team every Chinese player threw away their Yonex racquets over night for the more patriotic LN gear.

I doubt Adidas would follow that tact. The market is pretty much saturated now, they've got 100's of manufacturers that cover all aspects and price ranges of racquets. The only way I can see them cutting it would be either to throw their wallet at it and buy in some decent resources and come up with (or make us believe) something we haven't seen before or by sponsoring everybody/thing.

Difference between Carlton and adidas being that adidas has a LOT of money. And if they're willing to invest some of it in the first few years to gain a foothold in the market, they can sponsor far more and far better players than Carlton. Also they would probably have a way to deal with the availability issue in Asia (which is the biggest badminton market), whereas other companies failed to properly sell their goods there (Head being the most prominent example, but I guess others like Wilson and Babolat aren't much better).
Adidas already has the fame of being one of the largest sports goods companies in the world, and are known for good quality. Li Ning, while being a very big company as well, are not even close to being that well-known outside of China. So I think there is no previous example for this.....any other "big player" that went into badminton previously lacked in one department or another (Li Ning being both very expensive and not very well-known, Head starting with sub-par products and being unavailable in many countries, Carlton not being available [and imop having too many sub-par rackets]....).

Remains to be seen if they can offer the same racket quality as others and if they can get hold of a prominent National team (although with Korea, China, Denmark, Indonesia and Malaysia being out of the picture, there's not much they can do in that regard...). Individual contracts with players like Victor are a very very good start though (as he is very likely to improve in skill and ranking over the next 2 years and thus be very well-known).
In markets like Germany (where the majority doesn't follow the international scene so closely) they'd have to make an effort to get coaches and maybe a few lower level players as well as shop owners into their team [the top player of a club being sponsored can influence almost all others in the club, even if he doesn't play at a national level...].

Agree. Carlton while old brand, is a small company with limited resources. They are also not diversified enough to hedge loss in order to expand into the market.

Adidas i believe is making the right steps. It will be hard to see how they'd break into the Asian teams at the moment. even though i think Korea is potentially shopping for a new sponsor. other teams like China, Malaysia are locked in for the moment.

what Adidas can do is to start small in countries where sponsorship are more individual player based. Europe is the best place for them to start as that's where they are based and players are more loosely connected to the national team compared to the Asian countries.

and Adidas can sponsor more tournaments. it is an expensive route but imagine we see a Adidas Hong Kong Open, that will raise a lot of eyebrows. Yonex is current bearing the most burden in sponsorship ranging from the smallest local tournaments *everywhere* to the largest and most prestigious tournament. the sponsorship marketing budget must be ginormous and heavily subsidized by their product sales. but i think Adidas should focus on more visible sponsorship, local tournaments are cheap to sponsor but there are too many of them and it adds up. it also doesn't have the same visibility as a Super Series or even beyond.

if after a few years, they started to gain some traction, then the move to sponsoring a national team will make the biggest impact. but it will have to be a bigger team. Taiwan, Japan, or maybe even Indonesia or Korea.

Well to me the brand name of Adidas already excites me. I just hope that their price range will be reasonable and also their qualities.

if it is on par with YY racquets, I think the big guys gonna face some hard time in few years time... I'm postponing my purchase of new racquets just to see how Adidas goes. ( Although I know it will be ages before it reaches Malaysia... )

Victor revival is due to sponsorship for Korean Nation, and Korea did really well too. One of their famous brand ambassador is Lee Yong Dae. Lining for instance have their existence in Badminton world due to sponsoring China Nation, their famous brand ambassador is of course Lin Dan. Being in the industry long enough, Yonex has sponsored a lot of badminton powerhouses, such as Denmark, Indonesia, Malaysia & many more. Their famous brand ambassadors areLee Chong Wei,Gade, &Taufik, not too mention other players from other discipline too.
What the brand ambassadors have in common are not only they have wonderful careers, winning a lot of trophies but they also become the role models in their respective field thus a lot of die hard fans. If Adidas want to survive in this business, they have to find players with similar characteristics. Sponsoring Axelsen is a good stepping stone. Who is next is really crucial. Sponsoring a nation is a good way to go too, so that Adidas will have larger pool of players whom they are hoping will shine and become their major brand ambassador. in my opinion, 75% this is the reason why a brand sponsor a nation. 20% would be taking advantage on the number of population who play badminton or expected to play badminton. The remaining 5% is X factor.

I think, if a product is good enough as a product, and has good after-sales, is available easily and with the usual U and G options, it will find a market. Adidas' huge advantage is that it can if it chooses, push it's product simultaneously into every corner of the globe. Remember, it has it's own retail outlets everywhere. And if the price is right (or even just competitive) there's no reason why it will not find a sustaining market share pretty soon.

I think, they don't need to be in a tearing hurry to sign up any giants, if those players are not immediaely available (other sporsorship contracts/commitments.) In fact, with their infrastructure, supply-chain and deep pockets, they may even choose to establish their brand in "other" countries - the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, Philippines, Aus/NZ, and countries like Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, etc. The distinct advantage is that they can establish (or extend) brand loyalty in these large and lucarative markets pretty easily.

Of course, signing up the leading lights and then getting into the event sponsorships will make them one of the heavyweights. But they don't really need to sweat it, like LN had to. My 2c...

The big difference imo with Adidas is that they are big in football (and sports in general), and football is the most popular sport in the world. Everyone knows Adidas, unlike Wilson, etc. People will buy it because it is Adidas and feel part of the rest of the world of sports (the apparel at least, if the design hasn't been messed up, rackets will indeed remain to be seen)

I still had until very recently, that "One World - Three Stripes" t-shirt from 1997 (it "disintegrated" last fall! )

For tennis, most of the adidas product lies on apparel and sport shoes... they tried to penetrate on the tennis racket but failed miserably.. tsonga, murray used adidas shoes but use babolat racket, Djokovic use adidas shoe but head racket.

For badminton, shoe and apparel they might have good chance to success since they have a massive resource on this.. however, when it comes to racket, it will be a big and great challenge.. Hope they can do well.. So we can have more diversify product..

Yonex sponsoring Denmark as a nation seems to have been weaker over the last decade. Perhaps Europeans are more independent and tend to sign individual contracts. That's where I would see them going.

It's definitely an interesting topic on how they will plan their strategy. Wish we could get more insider info!!

Most European players have individual contracts. Denmark and England (and Germany, etc.) have limited contracts with Yonex to allow the players free choice of material (read: their individual sponsorship for more $$$), only on national team duty are they required to wear Yonex apparel (I think the Danes even cover up the YY logo if they are not under contract with). The only exception to this had been Netherlands with a full Yonex contract like Malaysia where all national team players are required to only use Yonex equipment (only exception on medical ground can be shoes). Mostly because they were in desperate need of a sponsor at the time, in hindsight it hasn't turned out to be the most desired option either.

Most European players have individual contracts. Denmark and England (and Germany, etc.) have limited contracts with Yonex to allow the players free choice of material (read: their individual sponsorship for more $$$), only on national team duty are they required to wear Yonex apparel (I think the Danes even cover up the YY logo if they are not under contract with). The only exception to this had been Netherlands with a full Yonex contract like Malaysia where all national team players are required to only use Yonex equipment (only exception on medical ground can be shoes). Mostly because they were in desperate need of a sponsor at the time, in hindsight it hasn't turned out to be the most desired option either.

Afaik they aren't allowed to cover the logo - or Yonex wouldn't benefit from the contract after all (since the individually sponsored players use their stuff anyway in the other 99% of tournaments). I think the way to go for them would be like Yonex with the Japanese team - requiring all Natioanal Team members to wear their clothes (and shoes) but leaving them to choose their own rackets. Although I'm really not sure if any European team would agree to such a deal (as no one is likely to get as desperate as the Netherlands seem to have been^^).
Getting Germany would probably be a good move seeing as that's where they come from and as they're currently the 2nd strongest European team. [although England has been making some progress to get back from the absolute low they were at]

Afaik they aren't allowed to cover the logo - or Yonex wouldn't benefit from the contract after all (since the individually sponsored players use their stuff anyway in the other 99% of tournaments). I think the way to go for them would be like Yonex with the Japanese team - requiring all Natioanal Team members to wear their clothes (and shoes) but leaving them to choose their own rackets. Although I'm really not sure if any European team would agree to such a deal (as no one is likely to get as desperate as the Netherlands seem to have been^^).
Getting Germany would probably be a good move seeing as that's where they come from and as they're currently the 2nd strongest European team. [although England has been making some progress to get back from the absolute low they were at]

During the last Thomas/Uber cup every danish player that wasn't sposored by Yonex did cover the logo (they just used a red pen).